I have 2 acres, crops, fowl, livestock. No log splitter. I borrow the hay equipment. The tractor is practically a must. It's easy to own 2 acres. Making it useful requires equipment or many persons of manual labor. a 25-30 hp tractor is very reasonable.
Yeah, I've hand tilled a tiny patch of ground. It's a lot of work. I think my next step would have been begging one of the neighbors to come in with their hobby tractor though.