Stump Ridge Farm Author:Pearl Swiggum Pearl Swiggum has no secrets. People who write columns have no secrets, says Pearl who lives a special life on Stump Ridge Farm which provided the name for the newspaper column she's written for more than 30 years. She writes from her farm near Towerville in the Kickapoo Valley, about 100 miles west of Madison in Crawford County. Her column o... more »riginated at what is now the Crawford County Independent Scout of Gay Mills and now is published by the Wisconsin State Journal and newspapers in Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa. One day Pearl's editor asked her to write a column and she responded "What's a column?" He told her he wanted a weekly account of things that happened around her farm. It wasn't long before she realized you could say anything you wanted. That's the beauty of it. Swiggum's writing habit began in the country school she attended in the Towerville area. She described herself as a homely kid with a horrid case of acne who showed a talent for writing. Swiggum went on to marry, have 3 children and live on a farm, something she'd always wanted to do. After her children grew up and moved out, she started at the Independent Scout to earn some money of her own. The woman who lives up there at the top of Stump Ridge Road is as full of energy as one would guess from reading her columns. She doesn't look anywhere near 70 as she zips around the farmhouse in bluejeans and tennis shoes. And she is possessed of a couple things her age lost long ago - a sense of wonder at the world around her and a delightful sense of humor. I'm happy this way, Swiggum said. I'm just having a great time.« less