Hi Brad_bb: Thanks for your interest. I believe I mis-used the word hew (I should have used the word fashioned). I have studied many local barns and considered the salvage idea. (I still may do it for another use). The particular barn I am planning now is a bastard of a bank barn (I haven't seen an existing that meets my needs. I need 10' clear on the ground floor to store my big tractors. I want the upstairs to be as wide open as possible 48'x70'). (I will try to post the plan if you are interested or if it would help the discussion)Most of the large barns I have seen use mid-span purlin plates supported by posts that interupt the open space upstairs. I have plenty of field stone on site to build the bank-side and gable-end walls. I get trees from local tree cutters that mostly would otherwise be chipped. (I don't anticpate much deliberate harvesting for this barn. The floor system should be strong enough for my wood shop (planer,jointer edger...) as well as several projects. (I have been reading all the TF joinery books (I bought the hard copy for the bathroom) It looks to me that the frame weaknesses revealed by the FEA would mostly be eliminated by using a roof trusses instead of integrating the roof rafters into the framing. I will design King/Prince trusses using ordinary statics methods of joints or sections I am planning to use roof purlins running across the trusses. It will be easiest for me to build this thing by sticks to the floor deck and then swing trusses on top of posts and plate. I am studying the handbooks (and discussing here) to get the most effective and asthetically appealing design as possible. Please keep the comments coming. Thanks.

-Bobby