Conversations with Dr. Cowan & Friends | Ep 97: Doug & Stacy

In this episode, Dr. Tom Cowan sits down with Doug and Stacy—homesteaders, educators, and creators who left city life behind to build a fully off-grid existence rooted in food sovereignty, craftsmanship, and lived experience.

Doug and Stacy share their unconventional journey from suburban living to raising animals, growing nearly all their own food, and building multiple homes by hand—despite having no prior experience in construction, farming, or homesteading. Along the way, they learned directly from their Amish neighbors, adopting low-tech, practical systems for housing, water, heating, food preservation, and daily life. 

Throughout the conversation, they explore:

• How and why they left city life and downsized radically
• Building log homes and infrastructure from scratch with minimal tools
• Living fully off-grid with no electricity, Wi-Fi, or conventional utilities
• Raising sheep, poultry, bees, and working horses
• Developing rainwater catchment and gravity-fed water systems
• Learning traditional skills through hands-on mentorship with the Amish
• How lifestyle, environment, light, food, and daily rhythms shaped their well-being
• The unexpected growth of their YouTube channel to over one million subscribers
• Their philosophy of learning through observation, practicality, and results—not theory

The conversation also covers Doug and Stacy’s Homesteading Life Conference, where they teach others how to grow food, preserve it, raise animals, and step out of the modern “rat race” using real-world skills and common sense. 

📍 Homesteading Life Conference
🗓 May 15–16, 2026
📍 Vandalia, Missouri
🌐 homesteadinglifeconference.com
Tom will be a keynote speaker at this event

This wide-ranging discussion weaves together homesteading, community, traditional knowledge, and a shared belief that the best teacher is direct experience—watching what works and building from there.
 
You can find Doug & Stacy's website here.
YouTube channel here.