Josh you sure had a good season. The bearing that failed is the front one in the electric motor. I found a replacement motor online for $153 with free shipping and will order one soon. They also stock that motor at Tractor Supply and if it was an emergency I could have the pump running again in a couple of hours. As it was it was late Saturday afternoon when the squealing got bad enough for me to have to shut it off. The bearing had been making some noise off and on for a couple of days.

The last sap that I boiled really stunk up the sugar house. The syrup has a bitter bite to it too. I don't think that it was much of a mistake to turn off the vacuum when I did. I heard that Bascoms is only going to pay $.75lb, minus $.05lb for 5 gal containers, for off flavor syrup so I don't want to make it anyway. At density that comes out to $8.25 per gallon.