Country Living Treemail

By Bennett Owen

Now here’s an app whose bark is better than its byte. What a clever idea and just in time for Valentines Day. 

With a make believe knife you can doodle around on the tree trunk of your choice and if your artistic IQ measures at stick figure level like mine, there are some handy pre-made carvings…hearts and horseshoes and arrows and @ signs.  So if you pine for someone there’s no reason to leave him/her in the larch.  Maybe the next update will include a chisel and a chunk of marble.

When I decided to see how it worked, the first initials that came to mind were C.H.

I fell in love with her in the 4^th grade and froze anytime she came near me. Then I moved away. 10 years later I met C. H. again at college, purely by accident…all grown up and still we recognized each other immediately. She was beautiful and gracious and funny and very, very married. Damn.

cleartune - chromatic tuner

Keep your guitar in perfect tune…recommended by Rosanne Cash…and also by musicians… ;-). Cleartune includes a chromatic instrument tuner and a pitchpipe so you can tune just about any instrument to pinpoint accuracy, using the mic in your iPhone or smartphone. Available for iPhone or Android.

Screenshot of Cleartune.



Grandma's tips and tricks

Clean your favorite black dress and cure the hangover you got wearing it.  Cut onions without crying, grow monster tomatoes and keep wasps away from your picnic naturally.  The original App is in French so the English isn’t perfect but still there are hundreds of great tips for home, health and garden.  We used to say about Grandpa, “The boss ain’t always right but he’s always the boss.”  And we used to say about Grandma, “She’s always right.”   Even when we didn’t want her to be. Available for iPhone.

Screenshot from Grandma's Tips and Tricks.

Roadside America

You didn’t know there was a two-story outhouse in Moab, Utah? Or a “Monument to the Flying Paper Boy” in New Mexico?  Then you definitely need my absolute favorite, Roadside America, an App that’s outrageously fun whether you’re traveling or not. RoadsideAmerica.com is a treasure trove of quirky, out of the way attractions across the fruited plain, and with the App, you’ll have it with you wherever you go, with trip planner.  There is even an entry for our hometown, Dillon, Montana…the grave of Pitt the circus elephant, struck by lightning during a performance in 1943.

iPhone Screenshots of Roadside America.