I agree, that many scarfs would be a little crazy and blow the budget I'm sure.

Well I've managed to shrink the barn by a couple of feet. Still a good pitch, and the headroom under the outshot tie is 7 feet, and the anchor almost 9' and the headroom under the upper tie in the upstairs is 6.5' but of course there's a lot more headroom between the bents. If I can get the ok on these clearances (and make sure they remember the braces too!) this would drop the big posts to 18' including tenons....which I think ought to be ok. That sawyer has already sawed me a whole bunch of 8x10 at 17.5' so....

Thanks all, I'll keep ya posted.
B