I'm confused - are you thinking square ft when you should be thinking cu ft? 4'x4'x6" = 8 cu ft 4'x4'x8" = 11 cu ft 4'x4'x10" = 13 cu ft 4'x4'x16" = 21 cu ft Dry soil also compresses under its own weight - especially when wet. Al

You might put in translucent panels instead of real windows, which often leak or are in the way when you change your inside layout. Many folks call them "fiberglass panels" and the patterns match metal siding for pole barns. Our panels are up high, just under the eaves of barn. They are covering the 10' to 12' high area of the walls, above the 10ft of solid metal walls below. We have those instead of actual windows in our barn, they provide a lot of light, no drafts even being on the windy side of the barn. You might want to create a journal of DAILY wind direction in the location of future barn. I say this because weirdly enough our winter winds come from the south or southwest. Summer winds are almost always straight out of the west. Other places I have lived the wind is ALWAYS out of the north west or west! Other folks around town never have a southern wind, just westerly. So this is a location issue, unexpected but you live with it. You may not notice this wind detail unless you track it for quite a while to notice the daily differences, SEASONAL differences that could affect your barn placement. Lucky for us, barn is facing east and west, so airflow is excellent all the time. Even in winter, with barn closed up tight, we have terrific air exchange with three roof vents on the 60ft length. There is NEVER any stink to smell or ammonia from animals inside, making it a healthy setting for breathing. We have horses in the barn, so good air is extremely important for them. Cold is not a problem even with low temps, but bad air can damage lungs or make them sick. Not sure how you plan to keep animals or stored items in the barn, but get the roof height up as high as you can afford. Much cheaper to go up in construction, than to add footage on the ground. I could probably add 1/3 more hay storage if we had gone up with 16ft sides instead of only 12ft high. When we built, we added MORE length than we thought we would EVER NEED. No REASON to EVER NEED higher walls. However our interests have changed over the years, have lots more horses now than we ever dreamed of needing, along with more hay storage needs. That height of walls is about the only feature we would change in our original plan. Hindsight is always so much better!! We insulated the metal roof, preventing condensation inside and for noise reduction in rain storms. Insulation keeps the hot roof from overheating the barn under it. Well worth spending money on insulation!! Easier to insulate as you BUILD, than going back later to try fitting in the pieces between rafters in summer heat and dirt barns collect. For your end doors you can do two 6ft sliders or a garage type roll-up doors. With the garage door, you will probably want a person sized walk in door too, just easier. I have the sliders, so can make a narrow space to walk in and the shut it again. Our doors don't seem to get snow blown up on them, which other folks have problems with. Shoveling out the door to open is very unpopular! This is where the roll-ups get popular, no shoveling to use them!! We have a center aisle, 12ft, so you can drive almost anything thru. Vet truck, hay semi fits, carriage and horses, tractor and spreader, all go down the aisle easily. I would not want a narrower aisle in the course of my daily work in the barn. Lots easier to drive inside with a load, take it off at the point you store it, than carry things from the outside door to storage area. We put a LOT of hay in for winter, carrying it all would be a back-breaker to haul by hand. Husband works on tractor inside, protected from winter weather. With the center aisle design, we leave both ends open for ventilation. There is almost always some kind of fresh air moving in summer to cool the horses stalled inside. Lighting inside the barn should have wiring run thru conduit for varmint prevention. Cold start florescents have been nice for me, even in single digits they light well and don't flicker. I have heard some use the curly CFL bulbs in protective cages because they don't heat up like incandescent bulbs do. Just takes a minute to reach full strength light, even in cold temps. You also might check the new LED fixtures, have a very bright light, cheap to run, don't get hot. We had the base for barn brought in the year ahead. This let the dirt settle all winter in wet and cold weather. This made base get firmly set, before building on it. Spread some cost out too, since base was raised up over 4ft from dirt. LOTS of fill was needed. When we finally put in the cement floors, there was no cracking later on.

If you don't mind sweating a little, you can usually buy a nice playground mix of sand, and a sac of portland, and mix your own in a 5 gallon bucket using an electric drill and mortar bit. Measure how much sand it takes to fill your molds. Use a 1part cement to 2 parts or even 3 parts sand and add water (Will vary greatly on each batch) I make my own pavers and only do 6 at a time, but only mix enough cement for 3 at a time. They are about 15"x15"x21/2" and each one weights approx. 20lbs. I have a few that are 4" thick by 30" and they weigh 120lbs. Not fun to move at all. At 21/2 " and a high portland ratio, a car can drive on them once they are cured. I like making my own mix because I have control of the consistancy, I started out using a pre-mix, and it varies with brands, what size aggregate. Most importantly, you need to use the entire bag each time, as the portland may settle in the bag unevenly. I purchased the sand from a local retail by the yard at about $10 a yard. Portland is cheap also, so my pavers are costing about $1.00 including the cost of the molds($500.00) another thing to remember is that you can always add more water, but not more cement to your mix. MIght also want to think about a release agent for your forms, if you plan on reusing them again.

Thanks Donna, I am doing Square Foot Gardening and I have a bed that is 4 by 8 feet. The packet says plant seeds 3 inches apart, so since I don't have to abide by row spacing, I should be able to plant 16 - 8 foot rows spaced three inches apart. 16 times 3=48 inches or 4 feet. 16 8 foot rows is a total of 128 feet of peas. According to your numbers I should have plenty if I plant this entire bed full of peas. Let me know your thoughts anyone.