Residency Details

The house has a combined kitchen/living room, two small bedrooms, a standard bathroom with tub and shower, a sleeping loft, an enclosed porch area, and a covered deck. It is completely plumbed and has reliable hot water from a solar panel and coils in the wood stove used for heating the house. (Firewood is provided; the resident replaces what they use.) Other appliances include a propane cook stove with oven, a propane refrigerator with small freezer, and propane wall lamps. The house is fully equipped with cooking and eating ware, and simple furniture including a queen-size bed and couch.

The homestead is off-grid entirely, without line-of-sight to any cell towers. The house is equipped with a recently installed, modern photovoltaic system (two 100W solar panels, two new LiFePO4 batteries, and associated components such as device charging stations and a 1000W sine wave inverter). The system is capable of powering laptop computers, some small lights, and small appliances. A Starlink “Mini” panel is installed with a plan supplying 50GB/month of data supporting Wi-Fi for voice, text, email, and internet accessible by personal smart phones and computers.

The Boydens have their own house on the property, a quarter-mile away and out of sight of the resident's house. They do not live on the homestead and scrupulously respect the resident's privacy on their visits.

Stewardship of the property is a privilege and responsibility that residents value as highly as solitude and silence. The resident's caretaking responsibilities include road, trail, and meadow maintenance, mowing, pruning, maintenance of a half-acre (swimmable) pond, upkeep of the houses, and light repairs to homestead water systems and fences. Duties are specified in a manual and will be fully explained and demonstrated at the beginning of the residency. No special expertise is required; a willingness to learn is. All tools and equipment are provided. The Boydens pay for all maintenance materials and all gasoline used in power equipment. The resident pays for their propane, a portion of the Starlink plan, as well as for their food and personal supplies.

Spouse, significant other, or friend—writer or non-writer—may accompany the resident (children too). Pets are welcome if housebroken. (We had a bad experience once with a rooster.)

Dutch Henry Homestead is two dusty or muddy hours, over teeth-jarring roads, from medical services and all cultural amenities. WiFi is now available at the Homestead as well. All writers considering this residency should honestly assess their appetite and tolerance for authentic backcountry solitude. You must be handy with a chainsaw or willing to learn; if a tree falls across the homestead drive, it will be up to you to deal with it if you want to get to (or return from) town. You will need a reliable high-clearance vehicle, preferably but not necessarily four-wheel-drive. You must be ready to coexist with black bears, cougars, and ticks. Above all, you must be self-reliant. The selected writer or writers will be strongly encouraged to visit the homestead a year ahead of the residency, in the company of the Boydens and residency administrators, for a firsthand look. After this visit and before beginning the residency, the selected writer(s) will be expected to sign a release by which they assume the risks inherent to living and working in a remote wilderness location.

Wildfires in the area are a distinct possibility. The 2013 resident had to evacuate at the end of July due to a fire across the river. The access roads were not reopened in time for the residency to be resumed. In the program’s long history in excess of three decades, one other resident was forced to evacuate for one or two weeks, and another was on alert. Evacuations are ordered by the Bureau of Land Management. The resident assumes all risks associated with fire and other acts of Nature. If a residency is interrupted or cut short by more than two weeks, due to an act of Nature or for reasons personal to the resident, the stipend will be reduced proportionately.

There are no stipulations on the resident’s creativity or output; no product or report is required from the writer at any point during or after the residency.
.