LAKE ST. JOHN — Seven years ago, Bobby Sasser and his wife Sherrill packed up their golf course home near Pineville, La., and made Lake St. John their permanent address.

But that wasn’t the Sasser family’s first experience at the lake. Bobby, an avid hunter and fisher, set up a trailer at the end of the lake when he joined a local hunting club.

The call of the lake was too hard for the Sassers to resist. When a house lot came up for sale, the Sassers purchased it with the thought of making it a weekend home. But it wasn’t long before they made themselves year-round Lake St. John residents.

“It was nice to come home to such a peaceful environment,” Bobby said. “There is something special about this place.

The Sasser’s home in Pineville was located on a golf course and had a swimming pool in the backyard. Neither of those amenities are missed at the lake.

“We traded in a small pool for a much bigger one,” Sasser said. “Moving here made a good situation even better.”

The environment of the lake offers the Sassers something so special that they were eager to return home after a trip to Portland, Ore.

Bobby and Sherrill took a week-long vacation to visit Bobby’s sister and brother-in-law in the scenic northwest.

Bobby said that while the trip was nice and the scenery was beautiful, he was ready to get home.

“The best part of the trip for me was getting back to the lake,” Sasser said.

The younger residents of the lake share a similar attitude about the quality of life offered by Lake St. John.

Olivia Brown, 15, said she enjoys living on the lake because it is quieter than living in town.

“It is peaceful out here,” Brown said. “There’s not a lot of crime either.”

Olivia said the hospitality of other lake residents is another plus to living at Lake St. John year round.

“There is always a lot of food,” Olivia said. “Someone is always having a crawfish boil or something.”

Summer at the lake is one of Brown’s favorite times because she can enjoy tanning at the lake and swimming more often.

Brown’s love of lake life is shared by her brother Hobbs, 13, who said tubing and swimming are his favorite things about living at the lake.

Olivia and Hobbs are the children of Clara Nell Brown.

However, their enthusiasm for the water isn’t always shared by every member of their family.

During a recent visit to the lake, Olivia and Hobbs were joined by their cousins Anna Lynn Hunter, 14, and Ella Hunter, 10, who are visiting from Naples, Fla.

The group decided to take advantage of a new “high dive” built on a neighboring pier for some afternoon fun.

Everyone was eagerly jumping from the pier into the walter, except Ella. She was being a little more cautious, which is par for the course according to her mother, Joy McClellan.

“She has to do everything in her own time,” McClellan said. “When she was little she was fearless and didn’t have a safety button at all. But now that has changed.”

An hour and a half after the jumping began, Ella was still perched at the top of the “dive” carefully sizing up distance from top to water.

“We’ve offered to pay her and tried to push her off,” Olivia said.

Ella said she was afraid of what would happen when she left the safety of the pier for the unknowns of the lake.

“I was afraid I might not come back up,” Ella said.

She said fear of snakes also factored into her reluctance.

But, as her mother said, Ella jumped off the pier in her own time, accomplishing her fear.

She did hesitate just a moment to see if the cash was still on the table.

After jumping Ella said she was relieved and glad she could show her cousins and sister she could jump off.

“I showed them that I’m not a coward,” Ella said.

Olivia said it was a good thing Ella did decide to jump because she was losing her patience.

“I was starting to get mad,” she said.

The water is a big draw for the Sasser family as well, but their enjoyment comes in a less active form than pier jumping.

“There is just something about coming out to the pier in the afternoon and just looking at the lake,” Sasser said.

But no matter the age or the activity of choice, lake residents agree that life on the lake is a one-of-a-kind experience. An experience they don’t see ending anytime soon.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Sasser said. “As far as I’m concerned, they are going to bury me right here.”