All right! Hatch, one of our resident Southern Gentlemen, comin' through with da macros!!!
I'm going to use these above pics ^^^ to illustrate the ripeness test.
You guys can DEFINITELY see the trichomes in the last picture. Look at how each one is like a perfect droplet of dew on a little glass stem. When your plants are ready to harvest, the clear appearance they have in that picture goes away and first gets CLOUDY or MILKY, and then some of them will turn AMBER. When all are milky and some are amber (10% or more depending upon how much you want to be stuck to the sofa), you can chop.
The pic #2 shows the pistils, or HAIRS, that start turning brown well before harvest.