For 40-plus years, Carlen “Carl” and Evie Bordner have enjoyed spending long weekends at their farm in Mohrsville. Carl, a retired electrician, is a hands-on guy who maintains both the farm and the couple’s West Lawn home. “It’s more rewarding than renting a summer place at the shore,” he says. Evie, his wife, feels the same. She loves sharing her country retreat with friends and family, even if it means having more chores to do.
WILLOW PINES FARM
The 10-acre property, originally built for dairy farming, was named after a tall willow tree in front of the main house. Today, the property, used for recreation, is intact and chock-full of rural flair with its pastures, rolling hills and woodlands — rows of pine trees that connect the two landscapes. Some of the trees hug a 1-acre pond complete with a small sandy beach, boat house and floating dock. Stocked with wide-mouth bass, catfish, sunfish and snapping turtles, it’s a fun spot – especially in the summer. There’s fishing, boating, swimming, canoeing or simply gazing across the water. “Everybody’s just doing their own thing,” Carl says. A working water wheel on the side of the boat house adds a nostalgic touch.
An old brown barn that stores lawn maintenance equipment and an assortment of small boats doubles as an outdoor gathering place for family parties. A chiseled stone embedded in a wall dates the building back to 1806. Carl makes sure to point out both a cement cattle ramp, a nuance of the old days, and a floor scale that used to weigh milk in bulk.
His personal space (dubbed the “Americana Room”) is filled with marine memorabilia and other keepsakes. In one corner, a small military cot covered with a vintage wool Army blanket looks remarkably inviting for a quick nap. In the opposite corner, an old desk with tiny slots and eight large drawers, a uniform and firearms complement the décor. A vintage stand mixer with a white metal bowl — an oddity among the militia stuff — is exotic and looks to be in mint condition.
“That was old when I got it,” explains Carl, who received the mixer as a gift from a fellow electrician. “And it still works.”
Outside, blueberry bushes bear ripe fruit along the barn’s edge, and peach and cherry trees grow in an orchard above the entrance lane to the property.
Other outbuildings include a milk house, corn crib and pump house, historic in nature and in good condition. An underground brick and stone cold cellar is used just for show, but in a pinch it could keep perishables cold on a hot day.
According to Ellen Phillips, the couple’s daughter, the original stone farmhouse is the only building not standing today. Its memory is kept alive, though, in black and white photographs behind glass in picture frames in a two-story, rustic ranch home. This is where you will find Evie tending to household work, keeping a close eye on the needs of her family. “I just love it,” she says. “I’m so relaxed when I'm here.”
This year the Bordners’ hosted their 42nd reunion in July. Every bedroom was occupied (there are four), including an office that sometimes doubles as a resting spot for overnight guests.
Years ago, when the kids were still living at home, Evie would make a 25-pound turkey and 15 pounds of potato filling for Thanksgiving dinners. “The house always smelled wonderful,” her son Darrell says. “I remember waking up those mornings and going outside for walks. The air was crisp and the pond sometimes had a thin coat of ice on it. I would sit on the porch and watch squirrels find their morning nuts. The peace and calm of those mornings would take you to worlds that were only imagined in a cool dream.”
TO THE FARMHOUSE WE GO
A “Willow Pines Lodge” golf cart is parked next to a dark brown storage shed painted the same color as the barn.
“It only took us 40 years to get one,” quips Ellen about the used cart. Ellen, a lab technician at the Reading Hospital and Medical Center and a ’79 graduate of Wilson High School, is showing me the farm with her dad and her son Brett, 18, a senior at Conrad Weiser. Her husband of 26 years, Chip, and their daughter Lindsey, 22, were unable to join us. “Willow Pines is a huge piece of all our lives and is etched with many family memories,” shares Ellen, who used to love to jump off the barn’s loft into hay bales as a little girl. Darrell also revealed there were lots of fun days inside the house, too. “I loved to hide in the laundry chute in the master bathroom and then drop down to the lower bathroom,” he explains. “She [Ellen] would get so frustrated because she could never find me.”
Other areas of interest in the house include a screened-in porch with two long picnic tables pushed together, used for board games and meals in the summer. A sitting room downstairs, a sunken living room upstairs (both with working fireplaces) and a master bedroom with an adjoining deck all have great views of the pond. A country kitchen with natural wood countertops boasts original floorboards and ceiling beams taken from an old barn.
Darrell’s wife, Connie, a teacher at the Goddard School, Wyomissing, is cooking hot dogs on the grill. She’s been bringing her young students here every summer for the past eight years. Dave McKay, owner of the school, is watching over a group of school-age boys catching minnows along the water’s edge. “That’s what they think they’re doing,” he says, “but mostly they are scaring them away. They’re having a great time.”
Other students are heading over to the far end of the pond. The damp, low-lying area called “Swamp Hollow” is supposedly inhabited by trolls who live under a bridge.
“Come on,” the kids scream. “We’ll show you!” Fueled by their curiosities and imaginations (it really is the stuff fairytales are made of), they run the entire length of the pond and jump on the bridge. It wiggles back and forth. Then they stomp on it to wake up the trolls. “Somebody fell in last year and was sucked under,” they warned me, as they barreled across, screaming at the top of their lungs.
ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL
Some family members keep getting lured in by its beauty. For instance, Darrell and Connie, who had their first date here, got married and then moved away (Darrell was in the Air Force and was stationed at Fairchild AFB in Spokane, WA.) Two years later they returned home, drove straight to Willow Pines and spent the next few days just soaking it all in with their children.
“My boys and I would take nature walks and fish for bass and sun fish. There were turtles to find and open spaces to run. We flew kites and eventually made a great treehouse. Today, my grandchildren are growing up with some of the same experiences,” he shares. (Darrell and Connie have four children, four granddaughters and three grandsons.)
In addition to family, many local organizations have enjoyed all the farm has to offer, including the Boy Scouts, church groups, West Lawn Lions Club and various other community players.
Evie trusts her family will always treat the place like their own. “They all have keys,” she shares. “I want them to use it.”
“It really has touched a lot of people’s lives,” adds Ellen of Willow Pines. “We should have a guest book because so many people have been here and know about it.”
And while no one really knows how this will all play out, hopefully the property will stay in the Bordners’ loving hands.
“I laughed and cried and wondered about things that could be, sitting on those rolling hills. I think Willow Pines is our little piece of heaven on earth,” observes Darrell, who has a poem or two about the place (unbeknownst to him) just waiting to be written.
Berks County Living-Willow Pines from Secoges Photographics on Vimeo.
by Marcia Weidner-Sutphen | photos by John A. Secoges, Secoges Photographics
