Hey thanks so far and please keep the speculation rolling in. I did get up there with a wand type metal detector and got hits all over the lower areas, including the bulge. Most of the hits were where there was visible signs of barbed wired. Also, the mallet sounding revealed that the wood in the bulged area appears to harder and higher pitch than the other areas. There were no hollow areas that i could tell. I don't have an increment borer yet, but I may purchase one with help of the homeowners association. I will probably need some help in reading the sample if I get that far.
When you observe the tree from a distance from all available angles, you can't help but notice several things: 1) the tree appears to make a slight between upper section and lower section with angle origin in the bulge area; 2) the part above the bulge angles toward the limb weight; 3) the bulge is more pronounced on the sides with the limb weight; 4) The bark of the bulge also has horizontal cracks that correlate to the more pronounced bulge areas.
Also, I took an photo of the tree taken from further away and put it into my photo software, used grid lines and angle feature, and confirmed that there does appear to be an angle created at the bulge. This is not anything very scientific of course, but I had at least 3 beers and looked at this thing off and on for several hours and I kept seeing the same thing.
WHY DO I CARE ABOUT THIS TREE?
Other than it's gorgeous and it makes our subdivision less ordinary? The reason I'm interested in this tree/property is that the owner (the developer of our subdivision) has been wanting to shed this .35 acre property for 20 years, but no one is interested in taking it on - mainly because of the old non-active family cemetery (graves going back to the 1700's). It is non-taxable because of the cemetery, but it is also non-buildable and our city planner has been excessively restrictive about what an owner can do with it - without doing an archeaological survey that is - though I can challenge some of that. It backs up to my property and I've always wanted it because there are 18 different tree species back there. But, you got those two veteran oaks to deal with (4-5ft DBH, 120-130ft tall, comparable spread). The southern red oak has a internal cavity that extends at least 8 feet up from ground; and this cherrybark has that bulge. He will deed over the property for $1, but then it's my liability if the trees fall on the neighboring houses. The neighborhood association doesn't really want much to do with it, other than maybe contributing a few bucks here or there for maintenance costs. The owner really doesn't care and would just let the tree fall, but won't spend any money to investigate problems and remove dead wood. I have a small part-time tree business but don't touch anything this size. As a favor to myself though, I have been taking care of the pruning and mosquito control back there for the last year. But when it comes to those two oaks, I am treading lightly. I have already received one quote of $8,000 per tree to remove, just in case it came to that. Even if I put the wood on the ground myself, the disposal cost would still be significant.
