Actually, by the medieval period farming was mostly till the soil at planting and occasional de-weeding in the mix. The rest of the time was filled with tending

Actually, by the medieval period farming was mostly till the soil at planting and occasional de-weeding in the mix. The rest of the time was filled with tending animals or doing something else like fixing the roof and the like. It's why many labor saving devices were created in fact (water wheel for running milling stones comes to mind). Farming wasn't all that hard until you get into the beginnings of the industrial revolution since most farming was subsistence prior to that. When the industrial revolution got kicked off in the UK that's when the Lords started forcing more people into the cities, thus making a massive labor shortage in agriculture which made it a hard job (few vs many hands in the task). I'm not saying it wasn't labor intensive, but it wasn't like the average peasant farming household was erecting Cheop's pyramid every season.