Jim,
The wood was NOT PT, it's all natural rough sawn pine. Posts are true 6x6. I've been here 3 years (previous owner built the pole barn) and I can see the posts deteriorate before my eyes. My soil is a typical VT mix of clay, glacial till and good ol' farm dirt - all of which is great for holding water and drying veeery slowly.
When I repair it I will use the 'bigfoot' & sono tubes below frost line. I'll also encapsulate the bottom end of the posts with a self stick/seal rubber membrane that roofers use, and, tie it to the concrete pier with Simpson metal ties. I did 12" sono tubes x 4ft deep for a deck this summer, each tube held (5) 80lb bags of concrete & I could do 4 tubes in a day (dig thru pour, of course my BH doing all the digging & an electric mixer that held 1.5 bags of mix).
I hope to fully enclose the pole barn some day - the barn is 40ft wide x 80ft long - just think, 14 bays, 10ft high x 12 ft wide x 20 ft deep - and since I'm on an open field I'm concerned about wind and it having a nice big area to catch - I want this thing anchored.
-Norm