Bogdarnya Farm - outside of Moscow between Petushki and Vladimir

Troika weekend

February 3-5, 2017
Bogdarnya Farm

http://bogdarnya.ru/en

Farmer John and Nina Kopiski

This past weekend we went on another Troika adventure - this time to "Farmer John's" farm (a.k.a. The Cheese Guy). 12 of us from the Canadian Embassy set out at 2 pm from our apartment by a driver arranged through the farm. He didn't speak English and was NOT friendly, but he was a good driver. Getting out of this city can be insane with traffic, but we managed to get out in good time. We were doing so well until we hit the railroad tracks near the farm (we didn't know it at the time) and turned the wrong way! We went, I kid you not, on a snowmobile trail - and a bad one at that! It was like a roller-coaster ride for about 1 hour, but not nearly as fun. Some were getting woozy because it had huge lumps - so huge that the back of our bus would hit the top of the mounds, it was a little crazy! After asking for directions several times, we got turned back around and arrived at our destination just in time for dinner after 4.5 hours (it should be a 3 hour drive). 

The main lodge was our home for the next two nights and it was very charming in an eclectic sort of way and beautifully kept. We all had rooms on the 2nd floor and they were quite nice and most of them large. We were fortunate to have a room overlooking the riding ring, ice rink, barn and slide. As is common in Russia, some people were roasting in their rooms because the heat is always so high, but our room was quite cool due to all the windows. Great for sleeping!

Our cute room = #14 on 2nd floor

Another part of our room with two more beds if needed - great for a family

Reception in the main lodge

The quirky, eclectic decor

One of the other rooms - Francine & Alain's - room # 12

 
Francine made signs for all the rooms! Too cute! I don't have a picture of all the rooms though. Thank you for that and for organizing us all Francine!

Main hall dining room - our gang minus me and Alain - not sure where he was. Silly Brandon always hiding in photos - he has no head!

The view of riding ring (is that what you call it?), icing skating rink to the left in front of that brown tower that has the slide. Straight ahead are some out buildings and the stables

I LOVED this coffee table with the icon frame as a top - gorgeous. I loved the couch too, but it was very uncomfortable

Mr. Moose - too cute

Our breakfast - porridge, cottage cheese, kefir (a fermented milk drink that originated in the North Caucasus Mountains made with kefir grains, yeast, /bacterial fermentation starter. It is made by inoculating cow, goat or sheep milk with kefir grains - apparently it tastes like a very good Greek yogourt) and a croissant - along with eggs

The beautiful church Farmer John had built on the property I believe he said 11 years ago. Notice how frosty those trees are? That's because it was about -20C

The lodge with the banya (bath house) to the right in the round, stone structure

Inside the banya - the cooling pool area

The beautiful stone banya from the outside (bath house - a sauna and a dipping pool) building

There I go doing the jump shots again - lovely church in background. I look really high off the ground, but I'm not. Optical illusion!

Of course we had to try the slide!

Alain too...

I had to also try his method, but I found a scrap piece of linoleum to slide down on 👌

 A little visit with the horses - I'm such a chicken!

Francine & Alain's sitting room that became the party/card room

The horses (Troika) warming up

Part of the farm's crest  -  didn't get a better photo of it, but I liked it

There's my sleigh warming up - we were with the big guys!

All squished in and ready to go! You can't see Shawn, but he's in there to the left of me in the picture - I'm next to Francine in white. And we're off!

See how squished we were!

The other sleigh with the smaller horses and smaller sleigh - they only had 4 people because there was no friggin way 6 were going to fit! Cat was supposed to ride her own horse, but she changed her mind at the last minute. Craig & Brandon took a car to where we were going to eat - apparently that was a very exciting ride on the horse path!

Brandon showing their crappy ride to the forest

Here we come down the path through the forest - so beautiful - love it!

And we're here already - I'm standing up because I was completely squashed on the seat - and we were there!

The horses leaving us... not enough time with them

Our chef for the shashlik (kind of like a kebab) and Elena

Warming up by the fire - nice toque! With Jack, Shirly & Francine

Alain is always up for some silly photo fun with me! Thanks buddy!

We were all a little shocked to learn this was our transportation back to the farm! lol Cool!

Nice!

The whole gang (minus Craig the photographer) and all the Russians taking care of us out in the forest

Super models!

Inside the truck - we were told to hold on tight!

I'm no where near as flexible or graceful as I believe in my head I once was!

Craig & Shawn attempting the triple salchow couples figure skating!

The barn converted into restaurant, banquet hall and place to sell their cheese and other products - very, very eclectic and interesting

The church up close - we managed to get a tour of it with Elena and Tim (Craig's football buddy)

The vaulted ceiling

Craig and his buddy Tim

Elena and I - she took care of us during our entire stay. Her English is quite good and she's very good at keeping us all happy. She's studying to become a speech therapist - a lovely person

Monkeys hanging out on the bridge

Farmer John stopping for a chat while clearing the path to the church where cars drive. He was telling us that the town nearby has about 16,000 people in it and that the average income (minus the 5,000 people who commute by train into Moscow - can you believe that? - what a horrible commute) is about 15,000 Rubles (approx. $300 Canadian). He pays his workers 28,000 R ($600 Cdn.), but says he finds it difficult to keep workers. They don't want to work as hard as they need to on the farm. John is a British/Canadian who married a Russian woman and they have 5 children.

 My only real issue with the service at the farm is it takes forever to get meals - even if we pre-order. They aren't very efficient at getting the meals out in any order or in a decent amount of time. Service was very friendly (not always the case here), but just not that efficient.

 It was another great weekend with friends we've made here in Moscow.
I've used a few photos from Tanya & Shawn and if others post on the album I may add some more later.