I can never quite understand how three kids that had the same gene pool, and the same environment can turn out so differently.

Steve and I always justified E’s unique attributes to her being the only girl and being youngest.

With the boys, however, being only 18 months apart, it wasn’t long before people asked if they were twins.

Having A’s accomplishments put under the microscope these last few weeks and knowing that it will be his turn to start on that journey very soon has brought out some of G’s more interesting qualities.

Despite my best attempts to be everywhere for everyone, I am only one person, and the demands of high school graduation had to come first.

I knew the other two were being mildly neglected, and while I felt mildly guilty about it, I know they will have their own graduation season eventually, and balance will be restored.

That being said, I was determined to spend the first week or so of summer vacation reconnecting with them and giving them each a little bit of quality time. A graciously made this easier by disappearing for a week to serve as a student ambassador at some organization he’s affiliated with.

E is easy. I had her summer hair appointment already lined up. In the past she’s gotten highlights, turned it blue, turned it purple, and this year, she decided to chop a significant amount of it off. A shopping trip or two, and a few days at the beach later this summer, and our connection is re-established.

G, however, G is always the child I find mildly terrifying. G has always been the “little Steve.” Hunting, fishing, anything outdoors, anything animal related, G is all about that.

When you have a spouse that has hobbies very different from your own, it’s manageable to pursue your own interests and then spend quality time together unrelated to your individual hobbies. When you have a kid, who needs supervision, and that’s all they want to do, well, that’s a different ball of wax.

If I had to describe our family in terms of building a mouse trap, E would want no parts of it at all. She would probably try to befriend the mouse, and before you know it, she’d have a village of mice, and she’d knit them all little sweaters. The animal lover in me understands this, although the practical homeowner me knows that they have to stay in their little outside world, or they have to go.

A, and I, would both want the mouse dispatched as quickly, as cleanly, and as humanely as possible. If we didn’t have to do it ourselves, that would be the best course of action, but we would do what we had to do to get rid of the mouse, and then we would do what we could to prevent more mice from coming in.

G, and Steve, however, would have delighted in the pursuit of the mouse. The two of them would have spent hours deciphering the way of the mouse, tracking the mouse, looking for sign, and deciphering clues left by the mouse. Then, they would spend hours developing some intricate, elaborate Rube Goldberg machine to capture the mouse. Then, they would probably capture enough mice to make themselves a mouse skin coat, which they would wear, and tell delightful stories about how they caught every single mouse.

So, you can see why I might have concerns about how G and I manage to work together. And, you can imagine how pleased I was to come home one day to find G digging up my meager flower beds. Glad to have any help at all with lawn care, but a little nervous about where things were going, I asked him what he was up to.

He informed me that he was going to take out two problematic areas of hill in our backyard. He pointed out rock terraces that Steve had built, mostly as he was cleaning rocks from other areas of the yard and explained how he planned to extend them. I recently acquired a decent sized tractor that came with some various attachments, and using the tractor, he was going to finish Steve’s project even bigger and better than Steve had envisioned it.

Mindful that I could use said tractor to push all the rocks and dirt he was moving into a pile and out of the way if things didn’t work out, I told him to go for it. Well, here we are a week into it, and I think we’re on our third or fourth trip to Lowe’s and the nursery.

Other than the plants themselves, and a few landscaping timbers he’s using to shore up some terraced steps, he has done all the work using only the dirt and rocks he’s dug up from around the farm. I did have to order twice the amount of mulch that I usually do, but it was a small price to pay for a beautifully landscaped backyard.

He has planted two different sets of plants, one that will supposedly attract pollinators and one that is bird friendly. It’s going to take a year or two for them to get big enough to do their job, but it will be fun watching it grow.

I know that if I had laid this project on him as a chore for the summer, he would not have enjoyed it, and I would have scraped along with the minimal plants and small beds that I had.

But, this is the perfect partnership for us. I don’t mind taking care of the plants once they’re in the ground and he loves the digging and the planning of it all. And, when we’re all done, I think we’re going to have lots of stories to tell about our backyard adventure.

Liz Pinkey’s column appears on Saturdays in the Times News.