I have to admit that I really enjoy the various discussions on timber frame engineering and design on this forum. As one who has been learning the craft strictly for the purpose of building a couple of my own barns, I've been soaking up the information. From the arguments and analysis that make sense, I extract lots of useful information to refine the sketches I have on the table. (The first barn is complete.)

Then, as I look out the window above the table, I see the old Frye Barn (Frye was the landowner who originally farmed my land). Despite the engineering analysis that says, "It can't be so!", there it stands - still.

The Frye barn was built as a 26'x36' hay barn back in the early 20th century. The foundation was hastily dry-laid field stone placed at grade on extremely wet soils. (A wetland spring on the hill above feeds the stream that flows alongside) Given the period it was built in, it's a hybrid of sorts. The posts, plates, and ties are M&T, but the braces are just spiked in place. The posts are 6x6 (hemlock). Dropped ties were used, nearly 2 feet below the plates. The scarf joints are completely unsupported half-laps, located midway between posts. The rafters are 2x6 on 3' centers, seated on the plates with tails extending to form the eaves. At the ridge, they are simply butted together with a short piece of 1x just below the peak. Over the years the foundation has completely come apart and the sills rest on earth for much of their span today. The ties that once spanned the middle of the barn have been gone for a long, long time, yet there it stands.

An engineering analysis would have undoubtedly given this building a very short life-span, but, here outside my window, where we get well over 100" of snow a winter and windstorms that regularly bring 30-40+ mph gusts and where ten to twenty below zero is a common January temperature (with deep frost), the old Frye Barn still stands.