Emergency preparedness from a Counterintelligence Agent

One of the best prepper websites: Prepperwebsite

One of my favorite websites to go to for information and research on the articles I write, as well as for learning, is http://prepperwebsite.com. It’ so useful that I did an interview with the owner, Todd Sepulveda. I wanted to get to know about him and his site so I figured I’d just do an interview. Here’s what I found out, in his words:

Are you a prepper outside of your website? 

I was born and raised in Houston, Texas.  Living on the Gulf Coast, I’ve been through a few hurricanes in my lifetime.  However, even going through Hurricane Alicia, when I was a kid, watching the disastrous evacuation of Houston when meteorologist thought Hurricane Rita was going to directly hit us and going days without electricity after Hurricane Ike, I still didn’t think I needed to prep.

How did you get started?

Prepping for me started in late 2009 and was spiritual.  You can read the story on my about page of Prepper Website – http://www.prepperwebsite.com/about

The mastermind behind Prepper WebsiteHow did you get started with the website?

I didn’t start out wanting to do a website.  As I researched and read blogs to learn as much as I could about preparedness, I started thinking that all these articles are so good, but there are many who don’t know how to use an rss reader to see them all in one place.  I imagined preppers visiting bookmarked preparedness sites everyday even if there wasn’t a new post up.  I thought that one place with all the great articles I was reading would be a good idea and a big help to the community.

I click on the DrudgeReport a few times a day.  So when I was looking for a template that could display all the articles that I was finding, I thought Drudge would be a great one.  Some people don’t like it, but many do.  I spend about 2-3 hours a night reading and posting links.  Sometimes this is done when I’m with my son at his Taekwondo practice or whenever I can fit it in.  I have a busy life…and life goes on.

What do you outside of prepping?

When I’m not wearing my prepper mask and hiding out in the prepper cave, I’m an assistant principal in the public school system.  I specifically chose  elementary school because I wanted to influence the younger students.  I hate the government red tape.  However, I can’t identify with most things I read online when people blast the public school system.  The teachers at my school are top-notch, work way beyond the school hours and want to make a real difference in kids.  I don’t ever see the excessive multiculturalism or government programming most talk about.  In fact, most of the teachers and the district are conservatives.  I have found very few liberals in my district, or at least in the schools I have worked.

I’m also a bi-vocational minister.  I pastor a home church.  I’ve actually been doing this longer than being an educator.  One former member’s parent owns a wedding facility.  Through him I met a retired minister that runs a wedding pastor business for couples who need a minister.  I stay pretty busy doing that too.  In the early days, the extra money I made as a minister all went to preps.

Do you have any hobbies?

I don’t really have any hobbies.  Before the website I played my guitar, read and messed with computers.  Now, the website is my hobby.  However, my dad recently purchased some land in East Texas and we are slowly getting it together.  I’ll probably be going up there often this Spring Break and Summer.

How prepared are you? 

I am a firm believe in prepping.  It should be a way of life.  It’s just plain common sense.  Although I wish I could say that I’ve been prepping all my life, I only started after my crisis of belief that I mentioned above.

Just like most new preppers, I started in fear.  I started buying stuff, without a plan.  That sooned changed and I started a long range approach, a desire to just live being prepared.  I wish I could say that I have my survival bunker complete with 5 years of food and all the sexy weapons ready at a moment notice, but I don’t.  That stuff costs a lot of money and well, did I mention I work in education?

Are you involved with any groups outside of your website?

One thing that I did look for when I was a newbie was a meetup group.  There were several inactive ones in town.  However, too my luck a new one was starting up.  There was a big crowd that first time.  I’ve visited a few times sense, but didn’t really feel it was for me.  The group does assign topics and does presentations, goes on camping trips or outings to shoot.

What advice would you give to someone who’s thinking about starting to be a prepper or starting a prepper website?

I would recommend looking for groups on meetup.com if you are in decent sized city.  As always, be careful and go with someone if you can.

I would advise a new prepper to not make any big moves starting out.  I would suggest that they read and do some practical things like buy extra food when they go to the grocery store and start thinking of ways to store water.  There are plenty of articles out there for the new prepper.  I have linked to many on the site.

The main thing is to not fear.  There is ALWAYS some big disaster coming.  It’s better to prep for practical things that might happen, like a job loss, hurricane, tornado, electricity going out, etc..

For article ideas I would suggest that a webmaster check out the polls on my site.  One poll can give a blogger insight into a few different articles.  For instance, take the poll on security.  Many that answered the poll say that they are dependent on their guns for security.  Dogs are second.  But reinforced doors/locks is third.  Why?  Isn’t reinforcing a door/lock easy to do?  Why aren’t more doing that?  Also, after looking at the poll, I would be interested in someone who develops alternative forms of security…someone who thinks outside the box.

Was this your first website or have you had others?

Prepper Website isn’t my first or only website.  I am the webmaster for my church website and also now post my own articles at www.edthatmatters.com.

In my time as the owner of Prepper Website, I’ve seen some good preparedness sites come and go.  I would suggest that  a new website needs to be consistent, but not burn out.  Delivering a great post, a few times a week is a great challenge and sometimes more than most handle.  I would suggest also to approach posts from various view points and angles.  There are many days when I read the same kind of article a few times.  The words are changed and different, but the ideas and process is the same.

Lastly, just try to be a nice guy.  I try to comment on sites when I can.  However, I hate having to sign in to some service.  There have been many, many, many times when I have typed out a comment and then signing in went wrong and my message was deleted.  That sucks!

Sounds like good advice Todd and congrats on the success you’ve had already.

.
About graywolfsurvival.com

I am a former federal agent and military veteran who has deployed to combat theaters in Africa, Iraq and Afghanistan and have almost three decades of military and military contracting experience.

My goal is to help families to understand how to intelligently protect their family and their way of life against real threats, without all the end-of-the-world doomsday crap.

Comments

  1. Jemima John says

    Looking to join a Prepper group in Houston. Are there any active groups in Houston?

  2. TexasRedWolf says

    Nice to see I’m not the only one from Houston

  3. We are planning on moving to Texas in our retirement in a few yrs. We’ve been prepping for a few years and want to be around like minded people. Right now we live in Fl. not really the best strategic location to be in a shtf situation. Great website by the way

  4. Hi Man,

    Love your content. Also, your tips for starting bloggers starting out are really helpful. I just started out a month ago and use the website mainly to improve my English. 😉 But also to meet like-minded preppers (I’m from Europe). I will definitely keep following you on my prepping Journey!

  5. Vicky Visconti says

    Help please. Live in Katy. Have 6 months supply of Food4Patriots survival food plus a large amount of beans, rice and lentils. No longer can keep it all. Want to sell for very cheap or at minimum give it away. Has a 25 year shelf life abs we’ve had it 7 years. Any suggestions on how I can get this sold or give away.

  6. Long term prepper, seeking likeminded personnel in the Brazoria County, TX. area to form local cooperatives. Former military operator, with survival and tactical ops experience.

Speak Your Mind

*

Search this site
Return to top of page

Copyright 2016, All Rights Reserved. All content on this site is subject to copyright law and cannot be reproduced in part or in its entirety without express permission from the original author. In almost all cases, this will be me, Graywolf. Contact me at graywolfsurvival@gmail.com for permission. If you would like to include a short snapshot of my article (the preview paragraph) by way of RSS feed with a link to the rest of the article, please feel free to do so, and I thank you if you do. Disclosure: This is a professional review site that sometimes receives free merchandise from the companies whose products we review and recommend. We are independently owned and the opinions expressed here are our own.

GraywolfSurvival.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to (Amazon.com, or endless.com, MYHABIT.com, SmallParts.com, or AmazonWireless.com).