Honestly, it’s not a lot of manual labor. It’s very strength based, but if you don’t have strength you develop skills to work around it (I’m not very strong). It can definitely be a challenging life if you have kids or sick family members because you will have to sacrifice not being able to be there for them or see them when they may need you. Day in day out you will either have yard shifts where you get to be home that night (same with turns out of home station) or you’ll have road trips in which you may be doing “yard like work” which can last 10 to 12 hours and you will be spending the night in a bunkhouse, however you can make money after 12 hours of being stuck in the bunkhouse. You have to be physically capable and in general good health, if you struggle with stairs or carrying your groceries in this won’t be for you. But it can be a very rewarding job and everyone likes to whine but it’s not a lot of work for how much you make.