Rural Route Life

10/05/2023

Well, friends, another year has passed, and it's time for our once a year Facebook post about the State Street Market. This year is different though, and I want to share with you all that we're actually not going to be setting up a booth on Saturday.

Most people know this, but not everyone is aware that the first Saturday in October is technically the only day of the year where our little business is open to the public. We have full time jobs working for the great company of John Deere, we have 3 boys in elementary school that need a lot of our energy outside of work, oh yeah--and we also have a couple small farms to take care of.

Rural Route has always just been a fun thing we do on the side. It doesn't generate any income for our family, because the profit always goes to donations to ag related charities (like FFA, 4H, Pheasants Forever for example) or to purchase equipment to be able to print shirts better for you.

We have a lot of mixed feelings about this decision, mainly because it's always our favorite day of the year and it fills us with so much appreciation and pride for our customers and this amazing community. But the reality is this year has been really hard for us personally, and we just couldn't make space in our lives the past few months to get prepared for it.

It takes months of preparation little by little at night and on weekends to get everything ready for the market since we have so little free time. It's always been worth it to make those sacrifices in the past, but this year we needed to take a pause to be able to fully focus on our family and enjoying the end of summer and this beautiful fall season.

There are two big factors that led to make being at the market really hard for us this year. The first is that my older brother, Jeff, passed away from complications of Type 1 Diabetes very unexpectedly in February. Nothing can prepare you for losing a sibling, and I didn't fire up the printing presses for 4 months after that.

To add to the struggle of grieving, we lost our machine shed to a tornado on April 4th. This pales in comparison, but created another struggle for us. That's where we store all of our displays and things we use for State Street Market. The contents of the building were mostly fine thankfully, but everything has been stored in shipping containers since May. We still haven't been able to unload most of it and put it away, and I couldn't even tell you where most of the items are!

Based on those two events, it was pretty easy for us to decide to take a year off; instead we have been very focused on having fun with family, and enjoying the outdoors in our free time.

Although we will miss having our booth on Saturday, we know it was the right decision for us. One "no" resulted in many other "yeses" for our family.

And you know I'll still be there Saturday, taking my time checking out every booth which I haven't been able to do for the past five years!

So please share the love and support you usually show to us to other small business owners this weekend.

09/30/2022

The State Street Market is Saturday! We are so excited to see everyone downtown Geneseo, this is always one of our favorite days of the year.

We’ve been working hard on nights and weekends the past few months to restock some customer favorites, create and print new designs for adults and kids, and we’re even dabbling outside of clothing for the first time.

If you want a sneak peek of our new product, check out this video from Paula Sands Live today where Amy DeFauw did a great job of promoting the event and shared a few of our items!

The free event that offers plenty of shopping opportunities from a curated list of handmade and vintage vendors--plus live music, great food, and much more from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

12/02/2021

🌾 It's time for another new style stocked on the website! 🌾

These hoodies were really popular at the State Street Market, and we finally scored enough inventory from the supplier to get all the sizes and make them available to the internet.

These are thick, warm and super comfy! There's no better way to show how rural you are in the winter months. 👩‍🌾

Rural Route branded hoodie to show just how rural you are.

11/08/2021

Happy Sunday!
In case you're still wondering what to do with your bonus hour today, check out the new style on the website!

We had these at State Street Market, and they sold out in less than 2 hours. The good news is, we made more.

Snag one while they last! And watch for more new styles over the next few weeks.

Whether you're a farmer, or you just want to be a farmer--this shirt's for you! Proudly show everyone that you think farming is awesome.

10/03/2021

T H A N K Y O U G E N E S E O !

We started up Rural Route in 2017, and the first time we ever sold a shirt was at the State Street Market that year. We didn’t even know if anyone would want to buy them, but we took the risk and our expectations were exceeded!

Every year we get the same questions….will you be at State Street Market? How is Rural Route doing? Are sales doing well?

And every year I give people the same answer—our success is completely dependent upon the time and effort we put into it. In reality, a majority of the year that means putting in just a couple hours a month fulfilling online orders or doing some big custom orders for local nonprofits and small businesses.

But for the month of Septemer, and especially the two weeks leading up to the State Street Market Geneseo, it’s every free hour at night after kids are in bed and spending weekends in the “sweat shop” we have in our basement. It’s very tiring, and we always ask ourselves if it’s actually worth it in the days and weeks leading up to the event.

But, it’s just that, days and weeks. We can handle a lack of sleep for that period of time knowing it’s going to be an incredibly fun day for our family and our community. We have full time careers doing completely unrelated things to apparel design and screen printing, so those and our boys are our top priorities for 99% of the year. Our little side gig isn’t intended to make us rich, but to give us more opportunity to be generous, and we hope that makes an impact on our boys. They get to help with printing, cutting, selling and all kinds of other things that teach them about hard work.

Some of our favorite things about the market:
🌽 We have customers tell us they come to the market just to visit our booth!
🌽 We have customers tell us what rural route number they used to live on.
🌽 So many people ask us where our store is, and I love to see their eyes get wide when I tell them they’re looking at it!
🌽 Seeing all the kiddos playing with our old farm toys.

It’s also a crazy day for sure!
👩‍🌾 Non-stop action, no time to take a lunch break or hit up a bathroom.
👩‍🌾 Seeing friends and wanting to chat, but settling for a friendly wave instead.
👩‍🌾 Not getting to take a deep breath until about 2:30pm when things start slowing down.
👩‍🌾 And then when you finally get home, it feels like you just ran a marathon (I know, because I have before).

I don’t know how, but every year we sell more and more. Maybe because people want to support a local business, maybe because we pick only the best quality and softest shirts to print our designs on, maybe because we keep bringing more inventory every year, maybe it’s because we lowered our prices when everyone else seems to be in leasing them—who knows?

But it’s fun to continue to increase our goals and see them shattered time and time again because that means more money to donate and more organizations in the ag industry we can support.

Now it’s time to put our signs and banners away until next year, take notes on all the things we’ll want to change for next time, and focus our attention on how we can donate our profits to benefit ag awareness and education. If you have an organization your passionate about, we’d love to hear from you!

Thanks for being amazing Geneseo and the surrounding communities. As our sign says, you can’t have this much fun in the city!

09/30/2021

We stepped up our game, and there’s plenty of options for the little ladies this year!

These hoodies are soooo soft!

Grab one while they last on Saturday from 10am-4pm, downtown Geneseo!

09/28/2021

We’ve had exactly one Instagram post in the past year, and now it’s time again for State Street Market this weekend. We may not have been saying much, but we’re still here and most importantly we’re KEEPIN’ IT RURAL!

Sometimes our models aren’t thrilled to get their pic taken, so have a look at all the outtakes if you need a laugh!

We’ll see you Saturday downtown Geneseo, we have so many new designs we’re excited to show you!

01/07/2021

Who needs icicle lights when you have real icicles?

#2021

12/12/2020

We have new hoodies! These camo hoodies are amazing—lightweight, super cozy, and they are longer in the front and back. They’re perfect with jeans or leggings and we have a few left in stock.

These are probably my favorite camo print I’ve ever seen for women.

If you order in the next few days, we’ll make sure it gets to you before Christmas!

Whether you're a farmer, or you just want to be a farmer--this shirt's for you! Proudly show everyone that you think farming is awesome.

10/15/2020

🌽 Giveaway time! 🌽

Post your favorite harvest pic, and we’ll select a winner for a $50 gift card to our online store!

To enter, it’s simple:
1️⃣ Like our page
2️⃣ Post a pic in the comments that shows why you love harvest
3️⃣ Tag a friend who loves this time of year

Also, Facebook has nothing to do with this giveaway. It’s all us. 🌾

10/13/2020

Friends in Atkinson, more water tower shirts will be ready soon!

If the sun's shining, there's work to be done. Whether you love to bale hay, or you just like to get stuff done--you can't go wrong with this one.

10/13/2020

We’re restocking from State Street Market! New stuff is hitting the website every day.

If you place an order for adult or kids Atkinson shirts in the next 2 days, you can get it next week!

If the sun's shining, there's work to be done. Whether you love to bale hay, or you just like to get stuff done--you can't go wrong with this one.