Fweddie, um, this might be it. [you said the door is steel, and the window bars wont move. but are they actualy attached to the walls? if so, are they the only possable exits, or is there a big hole in the wall somewhere?]

wow, HuggableMonster, you nailed all of mine, escept for the black dog one. nice work on the chess puzzle by the way. few have had the patience for that one. yes, the 'olive in stine' one works as follows, for those of you who dont understand the answer. ["Put an olive in 'stine', mix it up, and get the equivilant of a fool's London subway." works as follows: a synonym for 'fool' is 'boob'. people in London call subways 'tubes'. and if you 'mix up' the letters in both 'olive' and 'stine', you have an anagram for 'television', which is the 'equivilant' of a 'boob tube'.
the correct answer for the black dog teaser was [daylight]. but i wouldve accepted [moonlight, or the dog barking]. [foglights?], yeah, i guess thatd work since i didnt rule it out. but its not really what i was getting at.
also, about the barn and the three sons, [your idea of gas and a lighter is on the right track, but he doesnt have to burn the barn down to fill it with something using those items, and im not talking about smoke.]

stay tuned peoples. as soon as i find my book, ill start posting cryptograms .