I understand that it would slow down, but it is an arm and a let in order to get into mining right now with the difficulty at this point.
Correct. Those that are currently mining profitably would continue to mine and continue to receive profit.
Mining would not get easier until after the difficulty adjustment.
I think that it would be harder to get into mining and catch up or would mining become easier?
It would not be harder or easier. It would be exactly the same until the difficulty adjustment. After the difficulty adjustment, it would get much easier and many new miners would start mining.
The amount of time it takes until the difficulty adjustment would depend on when the mining farm shut down. The difficulty is adjusted every 2016 blocks. So, if the shutdown happened immediately after an adjustment, then the network would have to wait until all 2016 blocks were mined for the next adjustment. IF the shutdown happened 1008 blocks after an adjustment, then the network would only have to wait 1008 more blocks for the next adjustment.
Are you saying that difficulty is directly proportional to miners?If there were less miners there would be less difficulty/I think dificulty is related to volume of transaction and block size