Unfortunately we have too much stuff, and I want to build a place where I can weld in the winter (even mig welders give off some smoke), so I decided to build a pole building (30 by 48 feet).
I sought advice here and got some good ideas, but few on this forum live in such an extreme and varied climate. We get 15 to 30 feet of snow here each year and there is an average of 40 days a year when the temperature gets below zero, but only 5 days above 90. My soil is a combination of sand and finely ground clay, so it is easy to work with and very stable.
Snow, and snow loads are an overriding consideration when building anything. I live in an area near Lake Superior (8 miles as the crow flies and 900 feet of the lake level) where the snow is especially heavy. My building is built to withstand a snow load of 80 lbs per square foot. In addition I will have 2 foot overhangs on all sides so the snow will have a place to fall without crushing the base of the building. I also have an extra course of dimension lumber running horizontally on the non gable ends to withstand the snow that does fall against the building from crushing it.
My property is about 13 acres and has about 7,000 trees on it (mostly pine). I wanted to choose a site where I didn't have to
cut down a bunch of trees to build the building. I have one area not too far from the back of my house which is relatively clear. As it was the power company and I only had to
cut down about 30 trees to build my road to the site and put in some additional power poles to the site.
Below is a picture of the site before I did anything. It is also quite level:
Pole building construction pictures 
Linear Mode
