Tried putting together a small plot with small backyard scale tools. Found out unworked ground is like concrete. 5 passes with a tiller would barely stir the dirt.

Rarely is anything worthwhile easy. Good luck.

Haha yup, my first two years I used a screw driver and a sack of seed. Stabbed holes by hand into virgin ground, wiggled the driver, dropped in seed and covered. I couldn’t believe how long a quarter acre took drilling every 6-12”.
Bought a tiller last year and now lost the lease to owner selling.

Check with the local school's ag teacher, ask if he has any students willing to do some small acreage plowing for food plots.

and of course the last two rains parted like the red sea going around the propoerty

Wait until the ground is damp. Much softer then

Throw and grow works just fine. I time it with the rains in the latter part of September.

We have the opposite problem dirt so loose it’s difficult to pull a disk to knock down the native growth.

I would just brush hog and not till. I was amazed at what we got the first year.

I've always said people that are gamblers should become farmers. What a gamble it really is praying for rains at the right time.

We just finished 5200+ feet of fence around 3 food plots to keep the cattle off. Last year they packed two of them so hard a 15' plow wouldn't break the soil necessitating getting equipment back there a second time which was a pia.