It Started With Hunting

He didn’t get his deer, but we thoroughly enjoyed our hunting together in Nebraska last weekend. Which has me pondering: Monument Glamping started with hunting.

This is me with my youngest son, Elijah, in Nebraska last weekend. This neighboring state has an excellent youth program with $8 tags and allowing dads like me to bring 10 and 11 year olds on a guided hunt. (Colorado, would you please do something like this???) I’ve taken several of my youngest kids to Nebraska to deer hunt through their youth program over the past 14 years.

Elijah is the youngest of 16 children. You often see him around the property on our golf cart replacing propane tanks, cleaning tents, or delivering requests to glampers. He’s the last Jeub kid to learn the art of hunting in the great outdoors.

Fun fact: Wendy and I started glamping when we rented out our hunting tent. During a remodel, I built a platform in the backyard and erected my hunting tent and moved my master bedroom outdoors. We loved it! On a whim we threw it up on Airbnb…and we booked out the rest of the summer.

We knew we were onto something because we got to share an outdoor experience with others who may not have known how. Everyone loves the romantic image of outdoor and semi-outdoor experiences, but don’t want to go through the rough stuff—like 3 degree weather on opening day! (No lie, it was the coldest opening day of my entire hunting life.)

But with glamping, you can enjoy the outdoors with all the amenities of a luxurious life. It really is awesome. Just as I thoroughly enjoyed bringing my youngest son out into the wild last weekend, Wendy and I thoroughly enjoy bringing people onto our property and showing them a “glamorous” outdoor experience in our hunting/safari tents.

You may be wondering, were we “successful”? Elijah didn’t get a deer, but his older siblings managed to harvest two bucks and two doe. But you know what? That isn’t what we think success is. It is the fellowship and joy of the outdoor experience. So in a way, we are always “successful” in our hunts.