Stolen palms

[ariscott]

Yes... But he is flying. That would be priceless

[Tyrone]

Tyrone, you would have been broke by the time you got there too...outback fuel prices + 500HP = $-

I did the Sydney-Darwin-Cairns-Sydney trip back in the early 80's in a 302 Fairmont...even back then the fuel was close to $1 per litre..it thinned out our wallets very quickly! You'd be lucky to get 5mpg with 500 HP...what would Perth to Darwin Cost at today's fuel prices?

That would hurt more than losing your Golden Canes...

Daryl

The motor had a 12:1 compression ratio so it needed 100 octane plus to run. I also had it converted to LPG with dual fuel. LPG is already high octane but it only made about 330HP on it which was good for economy. I used to buy Avgas from Jandakot airport until they banned it from highway use. So when I wanted power I switched it to Avgas and off we went. After the Avgas ban I used BP Ultimate 98 which was really not enough. With Ultimate 98 I still needed to stall it in gear to switch it off. On Avgas it switched off fine. Ultimate 98 with added octane booster was good. On LPG I would get 6km/per litre on the open road, 5km/litre around town. On Ultimate 98 I could drive mildly for 30km and the fuel level would move one small increment on the gauge (there was about 30 increments from full to empty) or I could floor it for 400m and use the same amount of fuel. So it was all dependent on how you drove. Perth to Darwin on LPG would take about 670litres of LPG. I don't know what the price of LPG is out in the middle of nowhere, but I'd imagine it'd be anywhere from $1- $2 so maybe $1000- $1400 of fuel to go approx 4000kms. Now if I drove it flat to the boards on LPG I'd probably get 2km/litre so that's around 2000litres, so $3000-$4000 in fuel. On LPG that would be speeds around 230-240kph, on Avgas 270kph-leaving the road in an out of control airborne condition. I never got it to speeds like that though.I was more interested in acceleration than out and out top speed. Also I never switched it to Avgas in the wet. It was almost undrivable on Avgas in the wet. She'd slip everywhere without any trying. Those Cleveland V8's just responded to what ever you did to them. After that I got into palms, and don't mess with cars any more. Palms are better.

Best regards

Tyrone

[peachy]

Oh Tyrone, I am so sorry to hear that you have been done over yet again. Sounds like locals to me. Could be time to get a front fence, a nice high one at that. I just hate the thought that some creeps are hanging around my home looking for things to steal. btw I am glad I drive a fairmont ghia these days !!

Peachy

[Tyrone]

Oh Tyrone, I am so sorry to hear that you have been done over yet again. Sounds like locals to me. Could be time to get a front fence, a nice high one at that. I just hate the thought that some creeps are hanging around my home looking for things to steal. btw I am glad I drive a fairmont ghia these days !!

Peachy

Thanks Peachy. All the palms are out the back now and the gate is locked. I was putting some fronds and old Syagrus boots in a skip out the front and had a weird kind of semi-confrontation with two guys loudly walking back from the shops. Though they didn't actually mention the palms, one seemed annoyed at me when he noticed all the golden canes had gone. He seemed a bit innebriated, and almost seemed to want to pick a fight for no reason. When I turned around and approached him a bit he backed down, and mentioned the footy. Weirdo, but I reckon they're the guys. I think one of them drove the car and a woman or child was used to get past my car to pass the palms out. The footprints in the bushes were small, not a mans footprint. There's a part of the neighbourhood I'm going to check out soon. I may see the Falcon and the palms all together. Behind the locked gates my place is hard to get into. I honestly don't think they'll try anything else. It'd be too hard for them. I don't think these people are interested in working too hard for anything.

The Ford Fairmont Ghia is a lovely comfortable car. Ford made some great comfortable effortless cars to drive. They also made some bad ones like my 1990 XF ute, with 3 spd on the tree manual transmission, and manual steering. What a chore. I don't know how anyone survived in the 60's with that sort of setup. Chunky as anything to drive. I miss my Cleveland V8 Fairlane. An "aim and fire" car.

Best regards

Tyrone

[Walter John]

Golden cane thieves ? why ?

Sorry to hear Tyrone. You'll laugh it off sooner than later, just look at our avatars...

[The Silent Seed]

Sorry to hear that this has happened again! Not sure how the cars got into the thread, but if we're talking about comfort and effortlessness, the Jeep Cherokee is on top of my list. I'm on my second one. Maybe not 500 HP, though!

[Cindy Adair]

Terrible to hear AGAIN about plant thieves. I admit that my opinion of the general public has decreased over time.... I wish you the best and them-well, not the best!

[Tyrone]

Golden cane thieves ? why ?

Sorry to hear Tyrone. You'll laugh it off sooner than later, just look at our avatars...

Yeah, you're right Wal. Going to do a bit of cleaning up in the garden today and prepare for the major reticulation upgrade. Going to extend the 40mm main line into the garden further and put some extra 40mm solenoids off it at various key points to improve moisture content in the garden during summer. Onward and upward.

Best regards

Tyrone

[Tyrone]

Sorry to hear that this has happened again! Not sure how the cars got into the thread, but if we're talking about comfort and effortlessness, the Jeep Cherokee is on top of my list. I'm on my second one. Maybe not 500 HP, though!

Ahh Chrysler. My car love before owning a Ford. Chrysler were known for making big strong engines. More loved in the US than here, but I loved them. They were absent over here from 1981(when the Valiant was dropped) until they reappeared in the 90's when the Jeep came back as a Chrysler model and all the other Chrysler models started to appear.

Best regards

Tyrone

[ariscott]

Golden canes are easy to sell... I guess and unlike in Darwin, probably worth a bit of money in Perth.

Regards, Ari

[Tyrone]

Terrible to hear AGAIN about plant thieves. I admit that my opinion of the general public has decreased over time.... I wish you the best and them-well, not the best!

Thanks. It's probably more of a reality check for me than anything. There only needs to be the one or two thieving, violent yobbo's in a community and it downgrades the whole place. Most of the people here like my neighbours etc are great. Not sure if I'm going to be bothered pursuing the thieves, although if I pursued them I bet I'd find them, but the law probably won't protect me anyway. They're golden canes, it's a learning experience. I'll improve my security here in future. Put a perimeter fence in and when my dogs pass away which they will, get some new dogs no one will mess with which can run the entire length of the property. Either that or a Komodo Dragon. It'll slowly sneak up on them, bite them, and when they've thought they've got away, pow................... gangrene. Don't know how I'd tame it though.

Best regards

Tyrone

[Tyrone]

Golden canes are easy to sell... I guess and unlike in Darwin, probably worth a bit of money in Perth.

Regards, Ari

A 5L pot retails for anywhere from $20-$27. So they stole $400-$500 worth of plants.

Best regards

Tyrone

[Dave-Vero]

Especially sorry to hear of the loss of the Dypsis carlsmithii, which seems both happy and cold-resistant in Florida. Pseudophoenix sargentii is a slow grower even in its home. The species was bulldozed from its native habitat (landowner disliked the National Park Service, which was attempting to buy the area). Restoration has taken a lot of effort.

_______________

Come to think of it, during the colonial period when the British government was shipping convicts to North America, Pennsylvania's agent in London, one Benjamin Franklin, offered to send rattlesnakes in return. I don't think we'd be allowed to send you a few. I think it's New Zealand that has the vegetable sheep, so it also wouldn't help for you to have a big sheep dog that thinks it's a big fluffy plant. On the side, a great recent documentary film on sheep herding in Montana, "Sweetwater" shows a couple of those sheep dogs eating a sheep. No explanation given. So maybe a palm dog might start munching on the palms.

[Adam from Oz]

Ouch, Tyrone. Ouch to the nth degree.

How rotten, low and invasive.

A couple of years ago I had some kids climb into my back garden and empty my water tank. 4000 litres gone over night. They did it to quite a few in the neighbourhood.

Don't understand some people's way of not thinking.

[Tyrone]

Yep, sounds like a job for Police Squad.

Now cue the music for the Naked Gun and the flashing police light on top of the car driving through a bowling alley.

[Adam from Oz]

At your service!

[Tyrone]

At your service!

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Tyrone

Sorry to hear about the 2nd plant raid . You need to put some more palms out in the dark but this time with razor blades taped to the pots !

[AggiePalms]

I have also had the theft of an important plant, so I understand the feeling of anger and frustration. When I was a teen in Texas, I proudly grew several big tropicals and palms, carried them in and out with the seasons, and took special care of them. They lived in a warm zone next to the stone wall by the front door, far from the road. One day, my 8ft Schefflera actinophylla was just...gone. The cycads, palms, etc. were still there, but just an empty space where the other pot had been. This was by far the largest plant I had grown, and couldn't possibly survive outdoors year round, so the stupid thief probably ended up killing the plant. Now, I wouldn't even bother to grow a S. actinophylla...but at age 13, keeping it alive in a cold climate, that sort of loss stays with you.

[Tyrone]

Sorry to hear of your loss. That feeling of seeing it missing is the worst. It's a violation of your rights not matter what they take. It sounds like they took something really special from you. Never give up though. Keep trying.

Best regards

Tyrone

[BS Man about Palms]

Tyrone, you would have been broke by the time you got there too...outback fuel prices + 500HP = $-

I did the Sydney-Darwin-Cairns-Sydney trip back in the early 80's in a 302 Fairmont...even back then the fuel was close to $1 per litre..it thinned out our wallets very quickly! You'd be lucky to get 5mpg with 500 HP...what would Perth to Darwin Cost at today's fuel prices?

That would hurt more than losing your Golden Canes...

Daryl

The motor had a 12:1 compression ratio so it needed 100 octane plus to run. I also had it converted to LPG with dual fuel. LPG is already high octane but it only made about 330HP on it which was good for economy. I used to buy Avgas from Jandakot airport until they banned it from highway use. So when I wanted power I switched it to Avgas and off we went. After the Avgas ban I used BP Ultimate 98 which was really not enough. With Ultimate 98 I still needed to stall it in gear to switch it off. On Avgas it switched off fine. Ultimate 98 with added octane booster was good. On LPG I would get 6km/per litre on the open road, 5km/litre around town. On Ultimate 98 I could drive mildly for 30km and the fuel level would move one small increment on the gauge (there was about 30 increments from full to empty) or I could floor it for 400m and use the same amount of fuel. So it was all dependent on how you drove. Perth to Darwin on LPG would take about 670litres of LPG. I don't know what the price of LPG is out in the middle of nowhere, but I'd imagine it'd be anywhere from $1- $2 so maybe $1000- $1400 of fuel to go approx 4000kms. Now if I drove it flat to the boards on LPG I'd probably get 2km/litre so that's around 2000litres, so $3000-$4000 in fuel. On LPG that would be speeds around 230-240kph, on Avgas 270kph-leaving the road in an out of control airborne condition. I never got it to speeds like that though.I was more interested in acceleration than out and out top speed. Also I never switched it to Avgas in the wet. It was almost undrivable on Avgas in the wet. She'd slip everywhere without any trying. Those Cleveland V8's just responded to what ever you did to them. After that I got into palms, and don't mess with cars any more. Palms are better.

Best regards

Tyrone

Hmmmm I still have my addiction in the garage... If I ever get the driveway open, curious if I will play more with them and less than the palms or what... ?

Bummer.

Hunt them down.

Kill them

Make the world a better place.