I have similar sized pole barn (36 x 50). A friend put the shell up for me in 2018. I used reclaimed materials, from a couple of my great great grandfathers old post and beam barns, to add a loft and shops inside the new pole barn.
The 10 ft truss spacing of my pole barn worked out very well for that. I attached the tops of my old hand-hewn American Chestnut loft posts to those trusses, similar to how you attached your support post, to the broken beam:
The last of the old barns that I dismantled was built in 1883, and had those numbers cut into the siding, up under the peak. I was able to get the “18” board down intact and repurpose it. I tried to match the text with a jigsaw on a “20” board and I installed them both up under the peak, inside the new barn.
Much of great great grandpas old barns has survived inside and outside the new one (I just finished adding a post and beam woodshed lean-to out back). Maybe some day, my great great grandkids will take this one down.
I was also able to save the old center crane rail, trolley and hay-forks from the old barn. I’m trying to come up with a way to rig that rail between a couple of the trusses on the new barn. It would be neat to use it to move loose hay from a wagon up into that loft.
I fondly remember the days of helping my grandfather with loose hay. It seemed a lot more fun than that way, than it was after he got a small square baler.
