Okay never mind telling me how stupid I was letting this black locust tree spring up in my backyard. It would make a nice couple of trees by the fence I said. Maybe some shade I said.
Yeah.
Well what happened is they shot up like rockets, unbelievable how fast.
What is worse, because they grew so big, and the backyard is postage stamp size, they are leaning away from each other as they were in fact, too close together. That wasn't so evident when they were smaller.

So now the one on the right, the one I'm discussing, is leaning directly toward my neighbors house. It would cost thousands to take it out- thousands I don't have.

To add to the discomfort, I stupidly nicked the tree with the lawn mower one year causing a gash. The gash healed- but not fully as you can see.
There are two spots where the bare heartwood is exposed.

I never knew what to do with this. I thought leave it open to the air, don't paint or mess with it or it might cause rot, right.
Right.

Well here's the problem as you can see. On one side, the heartwood looks wierd, just like this. It occasionally gets a bit softish, but now its dry.
There appear to be what look like little white things that have popped up.
Fungus? Does anyone recognize.

The other opening is rock hard, and you can see it.
Near the ground, its a little earthy and maybe rotted a little. But the rest of the tree is solid and healthy, and definitely living.

Termites?
I have termites on the other side of the yard, which I've treated. But its a long way off. I will put a bait station next to it tomorrow.
But maybe its fungus?????

Does anyone have any suspicious what this could be, and how much trouble I'm in :/

Thanks for comments.

to show other pics around the trunk, which still looks fine. Just those two spots







Jus

That last pic, you can see is the side of the trunk that is leaning toward the house. It appears to have grown a 'foot' there, assumedly to keep it propped up and steady.
Yes we definitely want that.
UChhh.

Hi Jeff,
First, I don't know where you're located and I don't know how healthy or unhealthy your tree is. I just wanted to get that out of the way. Someone a lot smarter than me will probably come along and answer your question soon though so don't fret.

But I will address one concern... that the tree(s) are leaning and can easily come down in a storm or the wind. And your neighbors will not be happy.

I had a similar situation a couple of years ago. I had a big, old Siberian elm even bigger than your tree right up against my house that was dying. It was covered in bark beetle damage. I knew I was going to have to have it taken down fairly soon because it could easily have fallen on power lines or my house and boy that would have been expensive! I knew I was going to have to get someone with a lot of experience in this situation. So, I came up with a plan.

I waited until February because that is the really slow time for landscaper/tree cutters. They are waiting out bad weather and the boss is trying to keep his guys busy. Then I contacted 3 of them and asked for an estimate. They were between $1,600 and $2,100 to cut it down and haul it away. So I waited a week and called back the 2 cheaper ones. They were all insured so I was going with the cheapest. I asked what their price would be if they just cut it down into smaller pieces and left it here and I would get rid of it. The 2 new estimates were $1,000 and $1,300. I was thinking it over when 2 days later one called me and said they would do it for $750. I said yes before he could finish his sentence.

2 guys showed up the next day, jumped out of their truck, tied the tree off to another tree and had it down on the ground and cut up into 18" pieces in about 15 minutes!

On one hand I was congratulating myself for getting the price way down. On the other hand I was kicking myself for paying $750 for 2 guys to do 15 minutes of work. Anyway, happy ending.

Someone will probably reach out to you soon with better info. Best of luck to you.