Dogs - good idea. 220Volt fence - bad idea. Land mines - bad idea. Horse or cattle electric fence charger - great idea.

Bob

Hey! don't Pee on that fence, to late.

Sheltering in place is the best.
That is if they let us.
Watch and see that the government is going to tax us all out of our homes, however.
I see them taking over most if not all private home ownership. President Carter started the movement away from private property and the ability to pass it along to your family. Watch the tax cuts congress gives, they slide a new tax under the radar at the same time.
Preparation involves more than stocking up. We must make plans to leave most of it behind if needed.
It has happened before to other peoples and times. Look at the Jews that escaped to the forest in WW2 Poland and stayed hidden for 4 years.
Look at others through out history that have had to move with little if any warning.
You need more than one plan.
The strength of the US special forces, is their ability to train for everything that can and will go wrong with plans.
Then you can quickly adapt and move on.

I'm already paying 3000 a year that's just property tax, about half that is for public schools in two different county's, and we home school, we look at it like its our way of helping the community, helps to ease the pain a little, how much more could they want. If your referring to the payroll tax cuts, that's a sham, yes you get more back each pay check 40.00 or 50.00 bucks WOW, but for most of us anyway, you will get back less at the end of the year tax refund, so all the big deal in D.C over payroll tax, is like johnny says smoke and mirrors, everyone thinks there getting something but there not, its already yours.
For me making plans to leave it behind NO, but making plans to take it with me, and this would depend allot on where you live if your in the city your going to have to group up with your community, but in an all out SHTF case, your screwed, folks in the city should be planing on getting out, don't worry preppers will know when its time to go. Make a very good friend outside the city NOW, to have a trusted friend takes time don't wait, key word trust. Yep you need more than one plan, but one good plan is better than 10 bad ones and making plans to stay in the city if, its a all out SHTF case, is a bad one, make a good friend in the country now, how hard can that be.
I agree special forces adapt well its their job, most of us are just common folks, and will be forced to group up, in the worse case, I think allot of us will surprised at how quickly we will adapt. I've been involved with many different group type settings, Yes even the militia, the problem I've found with these type of groups is that they seam to be dead set on having some type of commander, right from the start, I think this is a mistake, just get a group together a leader will naturally be known, your not going to survive a worst case SHTF on your own. Securing your windows and doors is a good thing but you should be making plan to stop someone from getting to your windows and doors, if you have been forced back in to your home, in a worst case, your mobility is now limited and most likely your screwed, Lead the enemy away from your base camp not to it.

I like that window film, I am going to look into that.

I have a dog and plan on getting another one soon. I keep my dog indoors and he is very territorial so that is my first line of defense right now. I would love to eventually fence in the whole yard but that is beyond my finances. I am thinking I will plant a hedge instead and as it grows, weave the branches together so it becomes a living fence.

I was thinking about making insulated shutters for the inside of my home which could be used for protection as well as keep it warmer in the winter.

You can get and cut a piece of clear Plexiglass that will fit on the inside of the windows. Then secure it with double sided tape to the frame. From the outside nothing shows, from the inside nothing much shows, the drapes work etc. Light comes in. The difference is that the cold does not penetrate very well.
The plexiglass works very well on storm doors. Comes in varying thicknesses.
You do need some air leakage so that a constant flow of oxygen is achieved. You can make things too tight.

One of the problems with the window film for a security purposes is that most glass units, for doors are tempered glass this means that it is a bit stronger than window glass (plate glass), but when it does break it shatters in to small pieces, like a door glass in your car does, so if someone were to break the glass, they could just push it in, or pull it out, and there in. The video that was posted here is very decieving because the glass that's in the "commercial" door in the video is what is known as laminated glass, (like the glass in the windshield in your car) and is not vary common even in commercial doors. Laminated glass is "NOT"standard in any residential doors or windows, and would be very costly to have installed in a home and if not installed right won't provide much security, the glass that was in the video was installed for purpose of selling the window film and will not preform like that with plate glass or tempered glass that you have in your home.

Thanks for the insight Lighthorse.
That leads me back to thinking insulated shutters on the inside would be the way to go. From the outside a person wouldn't be able to tell what is beyond the window even if it were broken and if the shutter has a way to lock down, it might make an intruder confused enough to give up.

Unless someone has allot cash to spend on securing windows and doors, the shutter would be a good option. Just preventing someone from seeing lights at night or as you said, being able to tell whats going no inside is a good thing, mobility with out being detected will give you an edge, and your K-9 friend will give you a early heads up, they just seam to know first. I posted somewhere before, that in a standard construction home, even if you have all your windows and doors covered with steel plating, I could be in your house in 60sec, with a chain saw or a good cored less sawzall, siding, sheeting, Ins, studs, and drywall are no match for a good chain saw and a person that knows a bit about construction. The information that folks are getting here is more than likely going to make them one of, if not the leader in the worst case scenario, as I said before if your in the city make a good friend in the country, don't wait, don't worry prepper will know when its time to bug out. If your in the city and your not bugging out, this is NOT a good plan but depending on how bad things get you can still manage, when the SHTF your neighbors will see the light and will be more than willing to work with you at that point, know your sh!t good folks will see that, and the bad can be weeded out. Any good plan has options if you allow yourself to be cornered your screwed, mobility will be key to survival.