Journal: October 27. Aquastat.

A warm and drizzly day.  John, the boiler man, arrived with his brother Brian to install a new aquastat on the old boiler.

This aquastat will instruct the boiler that it is no longer necessary (due to installation of water heater in May) to keep turning on to create hot water.  Its sole job is to heat the water in the heating system. 

After installing the aquastat, he pointed out the rusting switches for the ancient motor system that controls the four heating zones and convinced me that I should re-do that system so that all four zones are on one motor (they will still be separate zones).  The new system will be much more energy efficient and will, perhaps even more importantly, greatly reduce the possibility of sudden collapse of deteriorated parts. 

Brian, John's younger brother, worked for many years as a landscaper and I signed him up to prune the two surviving apple trees in what was once a small orchard of apple and peach trees.

As the leaves fall off the trees, the lake feels much closer.  With its noisy and ever-fluctuating bird population, it's host to many grand bird take-offs and landings throughout the day.  Instead of showing the aquastat (a metal box), here's the view from the window.  You can see the water ruffling from the geese.